The government of Mexico is planning to reintroduce five endangered Mexican gray wolves in northeastern Sonora - within a wolf's walking distance of Arizona.The reintroduction, scheduled to occur as early as this month, has forced U.S. state and federal agencies to scramble. Their problem is to figure out what to do if a wolf wanders north into the United States.

So far, their answer isn't pleasing ranchers: They'll treat any wolves from Mexico as fully endangered and therefore largely untouchable."For one (wolf) to go 80 miles in one week is nothing," said Laura Schneberger of the Gila Livestock Growers Association in New Mexico. "Once they're managed as fully endangered species, you won't be able to remove them for any reason."

She called Mexico's plan, made in concert with some U.S. and allied Mexican environmental groups, an "end around" to bring wolves into the U.S. from the south.

That possible result sounds like a good thing to some environmentalists from Arizona and New Mexico. They view the troubled wolf reintroduction straddling those U.S. states, in a place called the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area, as weakened by rules that allow easy removals of wolves.

"We do eventually want connectivity between the Blue Range wolves and wolves in Mexico," said Michael Robinson of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity.

The Mexican government has withheld many details of its planned release, including the timing, but officials said in an e-mail to the Star Friday that it will take place in the Sierra San Luis. That mountain range in northeastern Sonora starts about 25 miles south of the point where the Arizona, New Mexico and Sonora borders meet and stretches south for another 60 or so miles.

Plan accelerates

Mexico's planned reintroduction has prompted a familiar debate among agencies, groups and individuals involved in the longstanding debates over managing for jaguars and wolves in Arizona. The difference: They have limited influence over Mexico's eventual decision.Mexican officials and conservationists have long planned to reintroduce Mexican gray wolves to their landscape. The last known wild wolves were trapped by American Roy McBride in Mexico during the 1970s as part of an effort to save the subspecies of gray wolves. A captive breeding program was established, and now more than 300 wolves live in 40 U.S. and Mexican facilities.

After decades of discussion about releases, Mexico's plan accelerated this year after Mexican President Felipe Calderón named the wolf one of five priority species for reintroduction before 2012.

"There is significant political pressure (in Mexico) to get wolves on the ground," said Arizona Game and Fish's endangered species coordinator, Terry Johnson, at an August commission meeting. "It's no different than the political pressures in the United States. … At some point, people run out of patience."

The immediacy of Mexico's plan came into sharp focus for U.S. agencies in July, when Mexican officials said they planned to release wolves in a spot about 30 miles south of the border in October or November. That word set off alarm bells for the Americans because of its proximity to the border, but the release date has been pushed back since then, most recently to this month.

The release site apparently has been pushed farther south, said Buddy Fazio, a Fish and Wildlife Service employee who directs the Blue Range reintroduction program. He has heard the distance is about 100 miles south of the border, but wherever the site is within the Sierra San Luis, newly released wolves could make it into the United States.

That in itself wouldn't be a problem, Fazio said.

"If they're just passing through, that's OK. But if they become an issue for people in some way, that's when we'd need to step in and manage in some way," he said.

The most common issue people have cited in the Blue Range area is wolves attacking cattle. Judy Keeler, a rancher who leads a Hidalgo County livestock group in New Mexico's bootheel, said she's concerned that wolves will show up from the south and start eating cattle, but there will be no mechanism for removing wolves or otherwise handling the problem.Said Schneberger: "It (a wolf) can walk through downtown Deming, and nobody will be able to touch it. It's not a good thing to list a predator as fully endangered."

The Fish and Wildlife Service is working on an environmental assessment that could give the service some tools for managing wolves that cross from the south, but that will likely take months.

"3 strikes" rule is gone

If wolves make it from Mexico into the United States, they'll be entering a complex geography of wolf controls.The Blue Range wolves were introduced in 1998 as "experimental, nonessential" animals. They're largely prohibited from leaving the confines of the Blue Range area in New Mexico and Arizona. If seen outside the Blue Range, and between an area bordered by Interstate 40 to the north and Interstate 10 to the south, they are to be returned to the Blue Range.

They also have been subject to rules such as a "three strikes and you're out" standard under which wolves will be removed from the project area if they eat cattle three times. That rule was eliminated in November."Those exemptions have allowed Fish and Wildlife Service to order the removal of dozens of wolves," said Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity.

But some officials see hope in a new population, one they don't oversee, appearing nearby.

"There's still that undercurrent in some parts of our population that we don't need wolves anymore," said Bob Hernbrode, an Arizona Game and Fish commissioner from Tucson. "I stand in support of Mexico transplanting wolves if they do it close enough to have a financial and biological impact on the United States."

During a teleconference Friday to announce disappointing declines in the Blue Range wolf population, Benjamin Tuggle, regional director of the Fish and Wildliife Service, expressed support for "anything that's going to supplement the population on the ground."

"The more wolves that are on the landscape, the more they're going to act like wolves," he said.

Wolves' return hasn't been easy

• Mexico and the United States began the effort to save the Mexican gray wolf together in the 1970s, but the U.S. got a much quicker start on reintroduction efforts - for better or worse.

• The United States released 11 animals from the endangered gray wolf subspecies into the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area, in Eastern Arizona and western New Mexico, in 1998. The goal was that natural reproduction and reintroduction would bring the population to 100 in a few years. The first wild pups were born in 2002, but continuing difficulties have meant that the wolves have struggled to maintain their population.

• Officials removed wolves because they ate cattle and for other reasons. They moved wolves into, out of and within the range. Ranchers and others grew frustrated with the animals, while many environmentalist asked that they simply be left alone.

• On Friday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that its annual wolf census found 42 animals on the ground at the end of 2009, compared to 52 at the end of 2008. It was the lowest number in seven years.

• Perhaps just as worrisome for the wolf project, at least two of eight wolves whose carcasses were found last year had been shot, meaning apparent poaching of the wolves, a problem for years, continues. Federal officials are investigating the shootings as possible crimes.

• State and federal governments have spent about $20.4 million on the project since 1991.

• Benjamin Tuggle, the regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, promised Friday to intensify efforts to have more wolves living in Eastern Arizona and western New Mexico.

Another enlightening documentary about Wolves. In the towering rain forests along the northern shores of the Pacific, scientists recently discovered a new subspecies of the gray wolf. Unlike its genetic kin anywhere else in the world, this wolf swims, fishes for salmon and roams great distances from island to inlet across both water and rough terrain. Secrets of the Coast Wolf blends modern science and traditional knowledge to create a fascinating portrait of a unique wolf subspecies and the pristine, fragile world they inhabit.

Please help the dogs of "SOSCoky" - the Canile of Santa Maria di Castellabate, Campania, Italy - in signing our petition. The area of the Canile is placed at a former rubbish-ground without infrastructure. There is no electricity and water. Many of the dogs are sick - suffering of Leishmaniose, Ehrlichose or other diseases. Already five years ago the municipials have promised a new area for the Canile, but 'till now nothing has happened. It is time for keeping promises now!!Join our petition please!Thank you!!

Help Stop And Shut Down Wild Animal World. They Capture, Import, and Export All Wild Animals for Pets.

Please take every opportunity to stop the capturing and selling of animals at the hands of Wild Animal World. Thereby encouraging the focus and calls for live export to end. The wave of outrage at the horrendous suffering of exported wild animals must become even stronger. This immoral industry has to stop. For our exported animals we can not look the other way. Please help shut down and stop wild animal World now!

Hi everyone. Please sign this petition. There is a beach in California called Casa Beach. The local harbor seals use this beach to have pups and as a haul out to rest. A group of rich locals are trying to dredge off this beach to scare the seals away and reclaim it for their human selfishness. There are miles and miles of beach and this section is small. The seals need us. Please forward this and sign. Thanks. Ty

When the Alaska Board of Game begins meeting next week, they’ll consider a proposal to extend the aerial gunning of wolves into May -- prime denning season for Alaska’s wolves.

Under the proposal, airborne marksmen licensed by the state could target entire packs -- just as the mothers of newly born pups are searching for food and their offspring remain vulnerable in their dens.

Extending the aerial gunning season is just one of the proposals the Board will consider over a ten-day period.

Also on the slate are measures that will collectively eliminate 80% of the wolves in a 50,000 square mile area; to make permanent “emergency” measures the Board took to get around a court ruling that temporarily halted aerial gunning in January; and to allow hunters to chase down wolves on snow machines.

We’re not taking any of this lying down. Next week, our legal expert will be on hand at the Board of Game meeting to argue for sensible, science-based, and humane management of Alaska’s wolves.

Aerial gunners have wasted no time getting back to gunning down wolves. In the five weeks since the Board of Game reinstated aerial gunning, more than 50 wolves have been slaughtered -- more than twice as many as had been killed this year prior to a state judge’s ruling that temporarily halted aerial gunning!

What Defenders Is Doing to Stop Aerial Gunning

The situation is dire, but we’re working hard to finally put an end to this brutal practice. Here’s what we’re going to do…

Take it to the People. We’re encouraging our Alaskan members and supporters to sign a petition being circulated by Alaskans for Wildlife, a group trying to bring aerial gunning before Alaskan voters. Alaskans for Wildlife’s signature gatherers are close to obtaining the more than 31,000 signatures needed to add the issue to the statewide ballot in 2008. Airborne wolf-killing by private pilots has twice been voted down by Alaskans.

Take it to the Media. To better highlight how brutal this practice is, Defenders has sent three film crews to Alaska in the past two years to get footage of an actual aerial gunning operation.

Take it to Congress. We’re meeting with Members of Congress to make it abundantly clear that the federal Airborne Hunting Act prevents states such as Alaska from allowing aerial gunning under the guise of ensuring high moose and other game populations.

Take it to the Courts. Alaska should obey the law without being sued, but Defenders’ expert legal team is prepared to challenge Alaska’s aerial gunning program in the courts.

I am confident that we can end Alaska’s barbaric aerial gunning practice, but I know we’re going to need your help to do it.

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Jan 31 (Reuters) - Two elephants explored their newsanctuary free of chains on Tuesday, the first of four pairs to arriveas part of the most ambitious relocation effort ever mounted for abusedpachyderms, organizers said.Minnie and Lottie were the first of eight female Asian and Africanelephants to make the 12-hour trip from northern Illinois inside acustom-built truck trailer to their rural refuge, the ElephantSanctuary 50 miles (80 km) southwest of Nashville. The elephantscame to the sanctuary from circus supplier Hawthorn Corp., whichsettled U.S. charges it mistreated a dozen elephants by agreeing tosend them away. Hawthorn has denied mistreating any animals. Theelephants were chained at Hawthorn and at various circuses when theyweren't performing. Some of the sanctuary newcomers will have tobe quarantined for up to a year because of exposure to tuberculosis,sanctuary founder Carol Buckley said. All were deemed healthy enough totravel, though one elephant died last month. One of the freshlyunloaded elephants, which has spent much of its life chained orconfined, was startled when a sapling it grabbed with its trunk snappedback. The eight newcomers will eventually join 11 other rescuedelephants -- including two originally from Hawthorn -- who live on thesanctuary's secluded 2,700 acres (1,000 hectares) near the town ofHohenwald. Buckley, who founded the preserve a decade ago afteradopting a baby elephant torn from its mother, said the relocatedelephants will enjoy "a glorious reunion ... as a family to live outtheir lives in freedom." "We had to build a new barn and newfencing and be ready to house and feed guests who eat an awful lot andare coming to stay," Buckley said. The sanctuary raised $3million for a new barn for the elephants and estimates it needs $2million a year to look after the eight.